Honeybees across the country are under attack from tiny, eight-legged parasitic mites.

These Varroa mites burrow between the segments of the bees' bodies or invade their larvae and infect them with viruses, deforming their wings and leaving them flightless.

That's not only a problem for the bees, whose entire colonies can collapse by an unchecked mite invasion, but also for California, which relies on honeybees for its food production and economy.

They're essential for pollinating California's most lucrative crops, including cherries, melons, and almonds.

California almonds are a multi-billion-dollar industry, and the pollination of California almond orchards serve as the largest honeybee migration in the world.

Besides the mites, honeybees are threatened by pesticides, habitat loss, and a lack of food and nutrition.

Treating the mites with chemicals and other methods have stabilized the commercial honeybee population over the decades.

Commercial honeybee deaths have been soaring in the US in recent years, and the reason why remains unclear.

Between June 2024 and March 2025 1.6 million colonies were lost, with commercial beekeepers reported losing an average of 62% of their colonies.

Earlier this month, the state assembly passed a bill that would direct the California Department of Food and Agriculture to establish a health program for managed honeybees.

The program proposed by Assemblymember, Rhodesia Ransom, would provide grants to help beekeepers and farmers plant more crops for bees to forage on, buy feed, or purchase probiotics to improve the bees' health The program would be funded either through the state, non-state, federal, and private funds, or a combination.

While there is no formal opposition to the bill, securing funding could be tough as lawmakers grapple with a $12 billion budget shortfall.

For CalMatters, I'm Lynne Law.